BASIC INSTRUCTIONS

Utilizing ARK, the Astrophysics Research Knowledgebase, a service of NASA's High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center, RPS provides a facility for filling out the TESS proposal forms, as part of the ROSES NRA. Electronic submission of the proposal forms is required. The anonymized scientific/technical justification must be submitted electronically, uploaded as a PDF file after the initial submission of the electronic proposal forms. In this same PDF file users must also provide an anonymized Open Science and Data Management Plan (OSDMP). This is a new requirement, with more information and guidelines provided on GitHub. OSDMPs should be no more than two pages and do not count against the scientific/technical justification page limits. A one-page "team expertise and resources" (not anonymized) PDF also will need to be uploaded. Please note that each of these PDFs cannot exceed 10 MB in size and each have specified page limits.

Note: TESS proposals must follow the Guidelines for Anonymous Proposals for dual-anonymous peer review. (Note that, for TESS proposals, the page limit for the team expertise document is one page, i.e. further constrained compared to the "no more than three pages" from the general guidelines document.) Proposers should fill in all required information on the forms, as detailed below. All fields (except those fields that specifically request names or institutions) should not contain personally identifying information. If a field does, NASA will need to redact it from the information provided to reviewers. With especially egregious cases (too many violations to readily redact, for example), NASA reserves the right to return your proposal without review. Your abstract, the contents of all other RPS form fields (except those fields specifically for names or institutions), and your justification PDF should not include language that identifies the names of investigators or their institutions.

In order to access the TESS RPS web form, you must first create an ARK account and/or join the TESS group.

If you already have an ARK account, login first and select "Join Group" from the menu next to "TESS RPS (TESS)" and then click on the Submit Changes button.

If you do not already have an ARK account, enter your e-mail address in the input field provided and click on the checkbox next to "TESS RPS (TESS)" and then click on the Join ARK button. Check your e-mail and follow the registration URL found therein. Fill out the ARK registration form and submit.

Next, proceed to the TESS RPS web form and fill out the Cover Page and General forms as directed below. Targets, if applicable for your type of proposal, can be specified in two different ways:

(1) For longer target lists (more than ~50 targets), we recommend that you upload your targets as a comma-separated values (.csv) file after you have submitted your RPS web form. Each non-blank, non-comment line of the file you upload should be a comma-separated list of the following fields:

• TIC number (if applicable — leave blank otherwise),
• right ascension (in J2000 decimal degrees),
• declination (in J2000 decimal degrees),
• proper motion in right ascension (in mas/yr),
• proper motion in declination (in mas/yr),
• TESS magnitude,
• target (common) name,
• extended flag (Y or N),
• special handling flag (Y or N),
• 20-second cadence postage stamp flag (Y or N),
• Swift exposure time (if not a TESS/Swift joint proposal, leave blank; if a TESS/Swift joint proposal, the user must enter a floating point number with at most one decimal place and in the range 0.0 to 500.0, in kiloseconds — requests over 100.0 ksec must be exceptionally well justified),
• NICER exposure time (if not a TESS/NICER joint proposal, leave blank; if a TESS/NICER joint proposal, the user must enter a floating point number with at most one decimal place and in the range 0.0 to 500.0, in kiloseconds — requests over 100.0 ksec must be exceptionally well justified),
• remarks.

Some of these CSV fields might be optional (i.e., the field must be present in the CSV file, but the value in that field can be blank) depending on whether you specify the TIC number or not; some fields are always optional, such as the remarks field. Refer to the descriptions of these fields below for details. None of these fields may contain a vertical bar ("|") character.

(2) For shorter target lists (fewer than ~50 targets), we recommend that you use the RPS target web forms. Target forms can be added to the RPS web form by using the interface controls at the end of the initially empty "Target Form(s)" section of the RPS web form or by using the Add Targets button at the top or bottom of the web page. The Add Targets button can be used to add blank targets or to upload a comma-separated values (.csv) file with the same format as described above. Do not confuse this feature with uploading the targets file after submitting your RPS form. Alternatively, after adding some blank target forms, you can use the Save button to download a plain text representation of the RPS form, which you can edit in your favorite text editor and then Reload into ARK. Note that the file format used by the Reload mechanism is the same as the format of the files generated by the Save button.

After you have filled out the form, click the Verify button to make sure you have entered the form information correctly. If the form does not validate, ARK/RPS will identify the reason(s) why it did not, which you will need to correct. Once the form verifies successfully, a Submit button will appear, allowing you to submit the proposal to RPS. Note that you must Verify successfully before the Submit button will be revealed and you must use the Submit to submit your proposal.

The PostScript, PDF, and LaTeX buttons can be used to generate formatted versions of the proposal forms. We recommend that PIs keep formatted copies of the forms for their personal records, but it is not a required part of the proposal submission process.

After clicking on the Submit button, go to your Recent Activity page. Summary information for the proposal that you just submitted should be listed here, indicating that you have successfully submitted your TESS proposal forms to ARK/RPS. You may now upload your scientific/technical justification (anonymized) in PDF format, your team expertise and resources (not anonymized) in PDF format, and your CSV target list (if applicable). From the Recent Activity page, click on the Files button next to the proposal you submitted, and then click on the Upload button and follow the instructions on that page. After you have successfully uploaded the files required for your proposal, you will have completed your RPS electronic submission.

Note: After submission and before the proposal deadline, you may still Modify or Discard your proposal using the appropriate buttons on the Recent Activity page. The Files button also enables you to Download, Discard, or Replace any file that you previously uploaded.

Note: If you have chosen to upload a CSV target list, please ensure the target list is correct by inspecting the uploaded file using the appropriate Download button in the Files interface. If your proposal is selected, this CSV file will be used as submitted to define the TESS targets for your proposal in the upcoming cycle.

Additional information on how to use RPS and the answers to some frequently asked questions can be found on the RPS Quick Help page.

Short descriptions of the forms and fields are below. The fields are listed in the same order as found on the web page. The labels for the fields in the web form will link to the appropriate field description below.

FORM/FIELD-SPECIFIC INSTRUCTIONS

Cover Page

Proposal Type

     1-Investigations Using Only Postage Stamp Data (20-Second and/or 2-Minute Cadence Observations)
     2-Investigations Using Only FFI Data (200-Second Cadence Observations)
     3-Investigations Using Both Postage Stamp and FFI Data OR Both FFI Data and Joint Swift and/or NICER Targets
     4-Investigations Focused on Ground-Based Observing
     5-Investigations Requesting Targets Only (Mini Proposal with No Funding)

Note: Mini proposals may request only a small number of targets and are not eligible for funding. A maximum of 1,000 2-minute cadence targets and up to 50 20-second cadence targets may be requested by any single Mini proposal.

Note: You can only specify Target(s) of Opportunity to observe if your proposal type is 1, 3, or 4.

Note: You can specify a joint TESS/Swift proposal and include Swift targets only if your proposal type is 1, 3, or 4.

Note: You can specify a joint TESS/NICER proposal and include NICER targets only if your proposal type is 1, 3, or 4.

Note: You can specify a joint TESS/Fermi proposal only if your proposal type is 1, 2, 3, or 4.

Subject Category

     1-Exoplanets
     2-Stellar Astrophysics
     3-Extragalactic Astrophysics
     4-Solar System Objects
     5-Other

Proposal Title

Abstract

Do you have target(s) to observe?

• If your proposal does not have any targets or does not require targets, select "No, not applicable (N/A)." You should also select this option if you plan to analyze only the full-frame image data or only the 2-minute cadence targets that will be observed as part of any existing programs, such as those from the MIT science team's target list. If you need specific 2-minute cadence targets, you should not use this option.
• For shorter target lists (fewer than ~50 targets), we recommend that you use the web forms to specify your targets. If you decide to specify your targets in this manner, select "Yes, the target(s) will be specified using the web FORMS below (recommended for fewer than ~50 targets)."
• For longer target lists (more than ~50 targets), we recommend that you upload your targets as a comma-separated values (.csv) file after you have submitted your proposal web form. If you decide to specify your targets in this manner, select "Yes, the targets will be UPLOADed as a .csv file after submission of these forms (recommended for more than ~50 targets)."

Note: You can only specify a list of targets to observe if your proposal type is 1, 3, 4, or 5.

Is this a Target(s) of Opportunity (ToO) proposal?

Joint Proposal?

If Swift is specified, then a Swift exposure time in ksec must be specified in either the Target Form(s) or an uploaded .csv file. Targets needing joint Swift time should have exposure times of 0.1 to 500.0 kiloseconds. Targets with exposure times of 0.0 kiloseconds will not be observed by Swift. Observing time under this program will be awarded only to proposals that require use of both the TESS and Swift observatories to meet the primary science goals. A minimum of 100 ksec of Swift time will be available through this program.

If NICER is specified, then a NICER exposure time in ksec must be specified in either the Target Form(s) or an uploaded .csv file. Targets needing joint NICER time should have exposure times of 0.1 to 500 kiloseconds. Targets with exposure times of 0.0 kiloseconds will not be observed by NICER. Observing time under this program will be awarded only to proposals that require use of both the TESS and NICER observatories to meet the primary science goals. Up to approximately 300 ksec of NICER time will be available through this program.

Because joint TESS/Swift and/or TESS/NICER proposals require targets and Swift and/or NICER exposure times to be included in either target forms or in an uploaded .csv file, a joint program can only be proposed if you select proposal type 1, 3, or 4. Proposal type 5 (a "mini" proposal) may not be specified. For investigations that only require TESS FFI data but would like to request joint Swift and/or NICER time for specific targets, please select proposal type 3.

Joint TESS/Fermi proposals should have science justifications that focus on the use of both TESS and Fermi data. These can include specific TESS targets (2-min or 20-sec cadence) and/or FFI analyses.

Effort Level

Anticipated Total Budget

Principal Investigator Title

First Name

Middle Name or Initial

Last Name

Department

Institution

Address 1

Address 2

City/Town

State/Province

Zip/Postal Code

Country

Telephone Number

Fax Number

E-mail Address

General Form

Co-Investigator First Name

Co-Investigator Last Name

Co-Investigator Institution

Co-Investigator Country

Co-Investigator E-mail Address

Contact First Co-Investigator Listed Above?

Telephone Number of First Co-Investigator

Target Form(s)

TIC Number

R.A.

Dec.

Proper Motion-R.A.

Proper Motion-Dec.

TESS Magnitude

Target Name

Extended?

Special Handling?

20-Second Cadence Postage Stamp?

Swift Exposure Time

NICER Exposure Time

Remarks